E3 – IndieCade Round Up: Hands-On Preview

The IndieCade booth was so nice, I visited it twice. One of my biggest regrets about my time at E3 was that I wasn’t able to play all the games on display. Two of my absolute favorites came from this space, and my second visit yielded even more excellent titles. Here are three in particular that just blew my mind and made me giddy with pure video game delight.

Perfection

Perfection is an iOS/Android title by Greg Lobanov. It is a low-stress, Zen-like puzzle game. You are provided with a random shape and the outline of a different shape laid on top of it. Using the touch screen, you can crop off bits to make the bottom image fit into the outline. There is no time limit, nor is there a specified number of moves you can take. What is really cool about this one is that all of the shapes can potentially be cropped to perfection (hence the title — see what I did there?) in one move. This twist changes your strategy as you rotate and manipulate the puzzle to do it like the pros. The laid-back gameplay and ambient music make this a perfect game for passing the time on the bus, or for stretching one’s brain with a neat challenge. Perfection is $0.99 at the App Store, and you can get more information about it here.

TowerFall

“TowerFall is Super Smash Bros. on crack.”

That was a direct quote from another developer I spoke to who recommended I check this out. This game is a four-player archery battle game in which you have only three arrows (which can be recovered) to fire at enemies. One hit is all it takes to kill or die, and there are warp tunnels straight out of Mario Bros. or Pac Man that can give you a tactical advantage. It’s fast-paced, easy to learn, and ridiculously addictive.

As a side note, while I was playing with the composer a small group of executives from Nintendo came and asked him questions about the game. It may have been mere curiosity on their part, but to have gotten Nintendo’s attention means this game is doing something right.

TowerFall is set to be released on June 25, 2013 on the Ouya. You can get more information about this game here.

Pedandeck

Pedandeck is a bit of an indulgence as it is not a video game, strictly speaking. This is a card game developed by Brian Schrank which is designed to play with social mores and peer pressure. The basic gameplay is that a group of friends each has his/her own deck, and you select cards based on the awkward social situation you have witnessed or created.

Here’s an example: If you witness (or cause — there are many delightful trolling opportunities here) somebody criticizing anyone’s gender or sex decisions, you can pull out the ‘Crotch Cop’ card on them and claim 70 points. If somebody gets superior on a person who has not interest in politics or voting, collect a handy 50 points for ‘Civilord.’ My personal favorite is if you troll someone into accusing you of being racially insensitive towards white people, you can literally play the ‘Race Card’ on them and pick up a tidy 70 points. At the end of the day/week/whatever, you get together with your friends and count up sweet sweet points to declare a winner. I don’t know about you, but thanks to Pedandeck my Christmas shopping for 2013 is pretty much sorted and it’s only June.

Pedandeck can be purchased here for $8.99. Check it out, and have fun trolling the world!